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WordPress Web Application Development

By : Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake
Book Image

WordPress Web Application Development

By: Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake

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WordPress Web Application Development
Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake
May, 2015 | 404 pages
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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
WordPress Web Application Development Second Edition
WordPress Web Application Development Second Edition
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
WordPress as a Web Application Framework
WordPress as a Web Application Framework
WordPress as a CMS
WordPress as a web application framework
Simplifying development with built-in features
Identifying the components of WordPress
A development plan for the portfolio management application
Understanding limitations and sticking to guidelines
Building a question-answer interface
Enhancing features of the questions plugin
Summary
2
Implementing Membership Roles, Permissions, and Features
Implementing Membership Roles, Permissions, and Features
Introduction to user management
Getting started with user roles
Understanding user capabilities
Registering application users
Implementing frontend registration
Creating a login form in the frontend
Time to practice
Summary
3
Planning and Customizing the Core Database
Planning and Customizing the Core Database
Understanding the WordPress database
Exploring the role of existing tables
Adapting existing tables into web applications
Extending the database with custom tables
Planning the portfolio application tables
Querying the database
Limitations and considerations
Summary
4
Building Blocks of Web Applications
Building Blocks of Web Applications
Introduction to custom content types
Planning custom post types for application
Implementing custom post types for a portfolio application
What is a template engine?
Persisting custom field data
Introducing custom post type relationships
Pods framework for custom content types
Time to practice
Summary
5
Developing Pluggable Modules
Developing Pluggable Modules
A brief introduction to WordPress plugins
WordPress plugins for web development
Time to practice
Summary
6
Customizing the Dashboard for Powerful Backends
Customizing the Dashboard for Powerful Backends
Understanding the admin dashboard
Customizing the admin toolbar
Customizing the main navigation menu
Adding features with custom pages
Building options pages
Using feature-packed admin list tables
An awesome visual presentation for admin screens
The responsive nature of the admin dashboard
Time for action
Summary
7
Adjusting Theme for Amazing Frontends
Adjusting Theme for Amazing Frontends
An introduction to the WordPress application frontend
Web application layout creation techniques
Building the portfolio application home page
Widgetizing application layouts
Designing a home page template
Generating the application frontend menu
Managing options and widgets with customizer
Creating pluggable templates
Extending the home page template with action hooks
Planning action hooks for layouts
Time for action
Summary
8
Enhancing the Power of Open Source Libraries and Plugins
Enhancing the Power of Open Source Libraries and Plugins
Why choose open source libraries?
Open source libraries inside the WordPress core
Open source JavaScript libraries in the WordPress core
Using PHPMailer for custom e-mail sending
Implementing user authentication with OpenAuth
Using third- party libraries and plugins
Time for action
Summary
9
Listening to Third-party Applications
Listening to Third-party Applications
Introduction to APIs
The WordPress XML-RPC API for web applications
Building the API client
Creating a custom API
Integrating API user authentication
Integrating API access tokens
Providing the API documentation
Time for action
Summary
10
Integrating and Finalizing the Portfolio Management Application
Integrating and Finalizing the Portfolio Management Application
Integrating and structuring the portfolio application
Adding the template loader dependencies
Interating the template loader into a user manager
Working with a restructured application
Updating a user profile with additional fields
Scheduling subscriber notifications
Time for action
Final thoughts
Summary
11
Supplementary Modules for Web Development
Supplementary Modules for Web Development
Internationalization
Working with media grid and image editor
Introduction to the post editor
Lesser-known WordPress features
Introduction to multisite
Time for action
Summary
Configurations, Tools, and Resources
Configurations, Tools, and Resources
Configure and set up WordPress
Open source libraries and plugins
Online resources and tutorials
Index
Index

An introduction to the WordPress application frontend

WordPress powers its frontend with a concept called themes, which consists of a set of predefined template files to match the structure of the default website layouts. In contrast to web applications, a WordPress theme works in a unique way. In Chapter 1, WordPress as a Web Application Framework, we had a brief introduction to the role of a WordPress theme and its most common layout. Preparing a theme for web applications can be one of the more complicated tasks that is not discussed widely in the WordPress development community. Usually, web applications are associated with unique templates, which are entirely different from the default page-based nature of websites.

A basic file structure of the WordPress theme

As a WordPress developer, you should have a fairly good idea about the default file structure of WordPress themes. Let's briefly introduce the default files before identifying their usage in web applications. Think about a typical...

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